me of the Batavia's treasure, and succeeded in finding all but one
chest. The mutineers were tried by the officers of the Sardam, and all
but two were executed before the ship left the scene of their awful
crime. The two men who were not hanged were put on shore on the mainland,
and were probably the first Europeans to end their lives upon the
continent. Dutch vessels for many years afterward sought for traces of
the marooned seamen, but none was ever discovered.

The 1644 voyage of Tasman was made expressly for the purpose of exploring
the north and northwestern shores of the continent, and to prove the
existence or otherwise of straits separating it from New Guinea. Tasman's
instructions show this, and prove that while the existence of the straits
was suspected, and although Torres had unconsciously passed through them,
they were not known. Tasman explored a long length of coast line,
establishing its continuity from the extreme northwestern point, Arnhem
Land, as far as the twenty-second degree of south latitude, Exmouth Gulf.
He failed to prove the existence of Torres Straits; but to him, it is
generally agreed, is due the discovery and naming of the Gulf of
Carpentaria--Carpenter, in Tasman's time, being president at Amsterdam of
the Dutch East India Company--and the naming of a part of North
Australia, as he had previously named the island to the south, after Van
Diemen. From this voyage dates the name "New Holland." The great stretch
of coast lines embracing his discoveries became known to his countrymen
as Hollandia Nova, a name which, in its English form, was adopted for the
whole continent, and remained until it was succeeded by the more
euphonious name of Australia. Tasman continued doing good service for the
Dutch East India Company until his death, about 1659, at Batavia.

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA

CHARTER UNDER WHICH AMERICA WAS COLONIZED

A.D. 1607

R. R. HOWISON

As the first of the original English colonies in North America,
Virginia enjoys a primacy in our history which, however other
sectional claims may be contested, is beyond dispute. The name
Virginia, which in 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh gave to his settlement on
the Carolina coast, at first covered an indefinite extent of the
great central territory of the continent.

After the failure and disappearance of Raleigh's